Establish A Routine

Establish a Routine

What’s your daily routine? If you have a job, during the week you may follow a general schedule such as this: wake up, get ready, eat, drive to work, work, drive home, eat dinner, relax, go to bed. Sometimes you probably wish you could live moment to moment, simply doing what you feel like at any given time, ignoring deadlines, responsibilities, and appointments. That kind of spontaneous living may be fun, but you know it wouldn’t work—you certainly wouldn’t keep your job very long. While routines can be, well, routine and boring, they also help us order our lives and get things done.

So if you’re serious about running, the best way to make sure it gets done is to make it part of your routine. Having a set time to run—every morning, every other evening after work, during lunch hours, or something similar—makes running a regular activity, a habit. A routine is especially important when working toward a specific goal, as in training for a race.

Spiritual routines are important too. In Acts, we learn this about the early church:

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

All the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade. (Acts 5:12)

Everyone was “devoted” to each other, to prayer, and to learning from God’s Word. And they met “regularly.” In other words, they had a routine, a schedule that worked for them.

The Runner

Jen thought she should take up running to lose a few pounds and to keep in shape. So she found the running trail in a nearby forest preserve, got advice from friends who were avid runners, and bought a running outfit and a good pair of shoes. She decided to begin on Saturday, and she was able to run/walk a mile. Encouraged, she ran again on Sunday afternoon. She had to get to the office early Monday, and Tuesday was jammed, so she wasn’t able to even think about running until Wednesday—but the rain kept her inside. Over the next couple of months, she ran only a few times.

When Rico decided to train for a half marathon, he knew he would have to keep a running schedule—more than his occasional neighborhood jogs. So he made a commitment to get up an hour early and run first thing every day, rain or shine, making sure that he had the right gear for rain and cooler weather. He reserved Saturdays for his longer runs and used Sunday as a day to rest and recover. Rico stuck to his schedule and had a great race.

Bodie had always been in sports, so he was used to working out on a regular basis. When he began running in his thirties, he had no trouble inserting a time to run in his daily schedule. As a relatively new Christian, Bodie had become involved in a church and a fellowship group. In one of their meetings, the discussion focused on personal spiritual growth and the importance of having regular times of Bible study and prayer. Bodie decided to go that way, and he knew exactly what to do. Taking the same approach that he had for running, he put thirty minutes in his daily schedule for reading a passage of Scripture, answering questions about it, and praying.

The Race

Sometimes our spiritual exercises and experiences can become routine in the wrong way. That is, we can simply go through the motions at worship, Bible study, and even prayer. Jesus spoke against meaningless rituals: “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again” (Matthew 6:7). But the answer isn’t to be unscheduled or unorganized. If we take that route, we may not study, pray, or worship for meaningful stretches of time as other activities and responsibilities fill up our schedules . . . or we may just forget.

The Result

From prison, in what would be his last residence on earth, Paul wrote these words to Timothy: “Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts” (2 Timothy 2:22).

Timothy was a “professional”; that is, he was a pastor, someone engaged in full-time Christian ministry. Paul knew that spiritual practices could have become commonplace and monotonous. So he encouraged Timothy to “run” and to “pursue” the kind of life God wanted him to live.

Don’t take your relationship with God for granted. Make matters of faith your pursuit, establishing a regular routine of spiritual disciplines.

My Story

I had disciplined myself to run every evening—and I was doing it! But then I decided to make my daily run a spiritual experience. Usually that wasn’t the case—far from it. At times I would wear headphones and listen to the news or a game. Sometimes I’d run with my iPod and listen to my favorite running music—you know, the kind with the energetic beat—very motivational. I’d also wear the GPS and regularly check my pace and distance.

Yes, I know that a “spiritual experience” can be different for different people, but I felt convicted about not praying enough, so I decided to pray while I ran, with no earphones or other distractions on me. To do that, I carefully measured the distance of each of the neighborhood running routes I usually took. Then before leaving the house, I decided how many miles to run and chose the appropriate route. And I wrote down my leaving time and checked the clock at the end of each run to see if I needed to pick up my pace the next time. I also wrote prayer requests on a card that I could carry. Those steps helped me focus on praying . . . all the way. And they provided a way for me to “pursue” a godly life.

Jermaine

Think It Through

1. Where does worship fit into your schedule? How about fellowship with other believers?

2. How and when do you have regular teaching from the Bible?

3. When would you like to have a daily time of Bible reading and prayer?

4. What can you do to establish a more spiritually productive routine?

On Running

How can I keep from getting fatigued?

You can take a few simple steps to reduce fatigue. The first is through efficient movement. Some runners, for example, waste a lot of energy simply by allowing their arms to almost flail as they run. The more efficient your movement, the less you will become fatigued. Spend time on your technique. Practice makes permanent; only perfect practice makes perfect. So focus on your stride length, rate, and so forth. Second, you can double your energy stores (the fuel for your muscles) through training well and eating well. Finally, you need to know yourself and your ability. Yes, you should push yourself in training, but pushing too hard or too quickly will cause you to tire sooner.